NASA Bombs moon to find Water Ice
Posted on 21. Oct, 2009 by Robert in World
Space has always been intriguing to to us. We have always been looking to inhabit other worlds and move from earth. Great research has gone into finding somewhere else for us to live or even survive. Nasa has now blown a hole in the moon in search of water or ice.
Here is a part taken from the NASA website:
NASA Spacecraft Impacts Lunar Crater in Search for Water Ice
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, created twin impacts on the moon’s surface early Friday in a search for water ice. Scientists will analyze data from the spacecraft’s instruments to assess whether water ice is present.
The satellite traveled 5.6 million miles during an historic 113-day mission that ended in the Cabeus crater, a permanently shadowed region near the moon’s south pole. The spacecraft was launched June 18 as a companion mission to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
“The LCROSS science instruments worked exceedingly well and returned a wealth of data that will greatly improve our understanding of our closest celestial neighbor,” said Anthony Colaprete, LCROSS principal investigator and project scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. “The team is excited to dive into data.”
In preparation for impact, LCROSS and its spent Centaur upper stage rocket separated about 54,000 miles above the surface of the moon on Thursday at approximately 6:50 p.m. PDT.
Moving at a speed of more than 1.5 miles per second, the Centaur hit the lunar surface shortly after 4:31 a.m. Oct. 9, creating an impact that instruments aboard LCROSS observed for approximately four minutes. LCROSS then impacted the surface at approximately 4:36 a.m.
This is really fascinating. I wonder when the everyday person will be able to fly into space.
Here is a video of the bomb explosion on the moon.
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sue grabbit-anrun
Oct 21st, 2009
are you for real? This made (really dull) news a few weeks back.
how out of touch are you?
Robert Jooste
Oct 21st, 2009
Today is the first time I heard of this.
My bad.